Meet Rice Head Football Coach David Bailiff, Offensive Coordinator Billy Lynch and new Defensive Coordinator Brian Stewart, and learn what is in store for the upcoming football season. These events are a great way to connect with fellow Owl alumni and fans, and to celebrate the successes of Rice student-athletes as we head towards the opening kickoff versus Stanford in Sydney, Australia!

This year's caravan tour begins on July 11 in Dallas, followed by San Antonio on July 12 and Austin on July 13. The tour will conclude in August in Houston (details to be released at a later time). Locations and registration for each event can be found below. For more information, please contact John Witten, executive director of the R Association, at 713-348-6915.

Attendees, please make reports. having attended a few of these in the past, I know we are going to get generalities instead of the detail we all crave. And that is the absolutely correct way to handle it. But still any stray nuggets and nuances will be welcome.

(07-10-2017 09:40 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote: Attendees, please make reports. having attended a few of these in the past, I know we are going to get generalities instead of the detail we all crave. And that is the absolutely correct way to handle it. But still any stray nuggets and nuances will be welcome.

(07-10-2017 09:40 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote: Attendees, please make reports. having attended a few of these in the past, I know we are going to get generalities instead of the detail we all crave. And that is the absolutely correct way to handle it. But still any stray nuggets and nuances will be welcome.

Bailiff spoke both of his affection for the university and the student-athletes, and expressed confidence in our goals of bouncing back from last year to host the Conference Championship and play in a bowl again this season.

Taking a question about the Stanford opener, he spoke of a lot of the logistics of getting a team there, and quietly mentioned that we are going there to win the game.

On defense (as I believe most of us know), we are switching to the 3-4 from the 4-2-5. Stewart mentioned using a lot of cover two and cover three. He expects us to get a lot more sacks as a result of the linemen coming from upright stance vs a down stance as in the past.

Offensively with Lynch taking the reins, expect more explosive plays, which we intend to accomplish with deception, by running multiple plays from the same pre-snap formation.

Lynch said that the college game is won primarily through explosive plays and creating turnovers (and containing the opponents). That sounds like those will be our key areas of focus.

It's certainly aligns with where Rice has found our success over the past decade.

Great to hear from the new coordinators and hear everyone's enthusiasm for the new schemes/styles. And to meet a lot of folks around the program past and present, and hear again just how much Rice Football means to them personally.

(07-10-2017 09:40 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote: Attendees, please make reports. having attended a few of these in the past, I know we are going to get generalities instead of the detail we all crave. And that is the absolutely correct way to handle it. But still any stray nuggets and nuances will be welcome.

Bailiff spoke both of his affection for the university and the student-athletes, and expressed confidence in our goals of bouncing back from last year to host the Conference Championship and play in a bowl again this season.

Taking a question about the Stanford opener, he spoke of a lot of the logistics of getting a team there, and quietly mentioned that we are going there to win the game.

On defense (as I believe most of us know), we are switching to the 3-4 from the 4-2-5. Stewart mentioned using a lot of cover two and cover three. He expects us to get a lot more sacks as a result of the linemen coming from upright stance vs a down stance as in the past.

Offensively with Lynch taking the reins, expect more explosive plays, which we intend to accomplish with deception, by running multiple plays from the same pre-snap formation.

Lynch said that the college game is won primarily through explosive plays and creating turnovers (and containing the opponents). That sounds like those will be our key areas of focus.

It's certainly aligns with where Rice has found our success over the past decade.

Great to hear from the new coordinators and hear everyone's enthusiasm for the new schemes/styles. And to meet a lot of folks around the program past and present, and hear again just how much Rice Football means to them personally.

(07-12-2017 08:16 AM)owl at the moon Wrote: Lynch said that the college game is won primarily through explosive plays and creating turnovers (and containing the opponents). That sounds like those will be our key areas of focus.

I think we all know that games are lost through those three factors. It would be very nice to find out if the inverse is true.

Were there any other coaching staff present from any other sport like basketball, soccer, etc.?

(07-12-2017 01:24 PM)I45owl Wrote:

(07-12-2017 08:16 AM)owl at the moon Wrote: Lynch said that the college game is won primarily through explosive plays and creating turnovers (and containing the opponents). That sounds like those will be our key areas of focus.

I think we all know that games are lost through those three factors. It would be very nice to find out if the inverse is true.

(07-12-2017 08:16 AM)owl at the moon Wrote: Lynch said that the college game is won primarily through explosive plays and creating turnovers (and containing the opponents). That sounds like those will be our key areas of focus.

I think we all know that games are lost through those three factors. It would be very nice to find out if the inverse is true.

I'm going to research this one... but before I do I'll go out on a limb and say that in our 10-win seasons we were able to:
+Match opponents' explosive plays, and win TD turnover battle (by a lot) in 2008
+exceed our opponents' explosive plays and marginally win the turnover battle in 2013.

(07-12-2017 04:36 PM)OldOwl Wrote: Were there any other coaching staff present from any other sport like basketball, soccer, etc.?

(07-12-2017 01:24 PM)I45owl Wrote:

(07-12-2017 08:16 AM)owl at the moon Wrote: Lynch said that the college game is won primarily through explosive plays and creating turnovers (and containing the opponents). That sounds like those will be our key areas of focus.

I think we all know that games are lost through those three factors. It would be very nice to find out if the inverse is true.

Focus this year was on Football, back to the format as originally conceived. I though it worked well. Bailiff did have good things to say about Pera in response to a question about bball

(07-12-2017 08:16 AM)owl at the moon Wrote: Lynch said that the college game is won primarily through explosive plays and creating turnovers (and containing the opponents). That sounds like those will be our key areas of focus.

I think we all know that games are lost through those three factors. It would be very nice to find out if the inverse is true.

I'm going to research this one... but before I do I'll go out on a limb and say that in our 10-win seasons we were able to:
+Match opponents' explosive plays, and win TD turnover battle (by a lot) in 2008
+exceed our opponents' explosive plays and marginally win the turnover battle in 2013.

I bet you're right. We have never been much good at avoiding explosive plays during the Bailiff regime. To do really well, we have had to squeak by with our own explosiveness and winning the turnover battle.

(07-12-2017 08:16 AM)owl at the moon Wrote: Lynch said that the college game is won primarily through explosive plays and creating turnovers (and containing the opponents). That sounds like those will be our key areas of focus.

I think we all know that games are lost through those three factors. It would be very nice to find out if the inverse is true.

I'm going to research this one... but before I do I'll go out on a limb and say that in our 10-win seasons we were able to:
+Match opponents' explosive plays, and win TD turnover battle (by a lot) in 2008
+exceed our opponents' explosive plays and marginally win the turnover battle in 2013.

I bet you're right. We have never been much good at avoiding explosive plays during the Bailiff regime. To do really well, we have had to squeak by with our own explosiveness and winning the turnover battle.

With a few exceptions (1980, 1994 come to mind), our vulnerability to explosive plays has predated Coach Bailiff by decades. (2004 @ SJSU as a oft-cited example)

1) Our top running back was held out due to a team infraction/discipline ... and the second fellow ran so much (successfully for quite a while) that he got physically sick on the sideline. Our potent running offense, running on only one depthless cylinder, pooped out in 4Q.

2) Hatfield continued to hand SJSU great field position with short, pooch kickoffs, of which we had many.

3) Late in 4Q, one of our DBs intercepted -- rather than batted down -- a long 4th down Hail Mary pass. This gave us terrible field position, we went 3-and-out, and the Spartans got the ball with a short field and quickly scored the winning (or tying, I forget) TD.

1) Our top running back was held out due to a team infraction/discipline ... and the second fellow ran so much (successfully for quite a while) that he got physically sick on the sideline. Our potent running offense, running on only one depthless cylinder, pooped out in 4Q.

2) Hatfield continued to hand SJSU great field position with short, pooch kickoffs, of which we had many.

3) Late in 4Q, one of our DBs intercepted -- rather than batted down -- a long 4th down Hail Mary pass. This gave us terrible field position, we went 3-and-out, and the Spartans got the ball with a short field and quickly scored the winning (or tying, I forget) TD.

1) Our top running back was held out due to a team infraction/discipline ... and the second fellow ran so much (successfully for quite a while) that he got physically sick on the sideline. Our potent running offense, running on only one depthless cylinder, pooped out in 4Q.

2) Hatfield continued to hand SJSU great field position with short, pooch kickoffs, of which we had many.

3) Late in 4Q, one of our DBs intercepted -- rather than batted down -- a long 4th down Hail Mary pass. This gave us terrible field position, we went 3-and-out, and the Spartans got the ball with a short field and quickly scored the winning (or tying, I forget) TD.

Grrr.

We scored 63. The option offense was potent. It just got harder to stock the talent.

I was at the Austin stop. Good crowd, Andrew Sendejo and Taylor McHargue were in the building.

Bailiff mostly talked about graduating players and turning them into fine, upstanding men. The coordinators were cool, and despite my better judgment, they kinda got me pumped for the upcoming season.

Coach Lynch said the offense will rely on a lot of pre-snap "smoke and mirrors" to keep the opposition off-balance. Regarding the QB situation, Lynch said it'll sort itself out in two-a-days and that the QB will mostly be a game manager anyway. Ball protection was stressed.

Pretty jazzed about the shift to 3-4. Coach Stewart mentioned our depth on DL and in the secondary, though admitted we're thin at LB. Said there wouldn't be any explosive (25+ yard) plays given up over/through the middle.